How to Play "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" on Piano

Learn how to play "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" on piano from musician Paul Sandberg in this Howcast video.

Transcript

My name is Paul Sandberg. I'm an actor, singer, and teacher in the New York City Area. For more information, please visit my website at paulsandberg.net. O come O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the Son of God appears. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanauel, shall come to thee, O Israel. That was O Come O Come Emmanuel, which is based off of a 15th century melody. It's relatively easy to play. You can break it down to just a handful of chords, which are G, A minor, B minor, D, and E minor. And if you would like, you can get away with just playing the roots of those chords in the left hand, and that would look like this. Placing your pinkie or your fifth finger on the G. Ring or 4th finger on A. Middle on B, index on D. And then your 5th, rather, your first, or thumb, on the E. Now your hand can stay right there without having to fight the difficulty of bouncing all around to hit these notes. Take a look, for a moment, at rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel. Now, Emmanuel, the l, ends on a dotted half note, and you're gonna wanna take a breath there. But if you look closely, there is no comma. It's a complete sentence. And what's more, if you take a breath there, it really sounds like you're saying rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, as if we're telling Emmanuel to rejoice that he has come. We don't necessarily want that. So really sing straight through that Emmanuel, and that'll sound like this. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmaunuel, shall come to thee, O Israel.